PARENTS TO PUSH FOR SOLUTIONS

When RCMP officers told Michelle Donaldson that items missing from a local
store likely ended up at local crack houses, she was surprised; surprised
that the officers spoke of crack houses in the plural; surprised that those
crack houses were in the vicinity of her children's schools.

"We tolerate marijuana in our community, but crack houses by our schools?"
said Donaldson.

"That's enough, we can't take it anymore."

Donaldson and other members of Stanley Humphries parent advisory council
will begin writing letters to deliver that message to city council and the
RCMP. They will ask that something be done about the problem, and suggest a
drug-free zone as a possible solution.

Coun. Deb McIntosh brought the drug-free zone idea to the Castlegar RCMP
Community Consultative Group last week.

"The idea is to set up a zone around Stanley Humphries, Twin Rivers and
Castlegar Primary, a drug-free zone, a zero-tolerance zone," McIntosh told
the group.

A drug-free zone around schools doesn't imply that drugs are OK everywhere
else in town. "It gives kids and parents some authority to say we're not
going to tolerate it, we want our schools to be drug free," said McIntosh.

The idea is not to turn kids into little rats, McIntosh said, but to give
kids and parents a way to start tackling the problem, a way for kids and
parents to take some responsibility.

"It's a good start. Start at our schools and work out."

Should the community adopt and support such a drug-free philosophy, there
is some hope that the courts might enforce the community's wishes.

Today, that wouldn't necessarily be the case, Const. Fran Bethell told the
group. Presently, if someone is caught with less than 30 grams of
marijuana, charges are not always laid. And that would be the case with the
small quantities dealt with around the schools.

With a percentage of the population pushing for legalization of marijuana,
pressure is being placed on federal prosecutors about the type of charges
that they will lay.

"We have ongoing frustrations with that," said Bethell, "with very small
quantities."

She noted a recent case in which Mounties discovered drugs prepackaged to
sell but crown failed to prosecute because the individual didn't have a
previous record.

"We're in a funny world at the moment where it isn't legal, but they're not
real happy laying charges. There isn't anything in place yet. If they
legalized it they would probably put some parameters on it."

That world, however, could be changed if the community wills it.

"I think it's part of the community's responsibility to pull together and
fight for issues that protect our children," said Donaldson.

Parents need to get involved, Donaldson added. The problem, however, is
bigger than just parenting. "The problem is society. We are all so busy.
Technology really hasn't made our lives easier, it has made our lives more
complicated. In the struggle for survival in the wild kingdom, I think
we've forgotten how to be a community."

Will the drug-free zone idea work? Donaldson said that she doesn't know.
"But it might make them uncomfortable to be here."

She said the crack houses could be sighted but there is a danger of
advertising that drugs are available at those locations. Neighbours could
put signs in their own windows, though, signs that said go away, we don't
want you. "That would be one way to voice an opinion."

"The important thing now is to let city council know that people care and
they want something to happen," said Donaldson. "It's here, it's in your
backyard, it's not somebody else's."